1. ITIS 1210 Introduction to Web-Based Information Systems Internet Research Four Finding Specialty Information

2. Introduction  What if you need very specific information?  Addresses  Telephone numbers  Definition of a word  Web site for a business

3. Introduction  May be stored in an online database  Usually not indexed by search engines  Specialty Web sites include  Telephone directories  Maps  Periodicals  Government sites  Mailing lists/newsgroups

4. Introduction  Usually must visit each site independently to find information  Now can use intelligent agents to search for you

5. Specialty Information  Search engines know about the visible Web  What about the invisible (deep) Web?  Online databases not indexed by search engines  Usually require direct access  May require username/password  May be dynamically generated based on a specific query

6. Specialty Information Deep Web Visible Web Databases Password protected files Newsgroups Dynamically generated pages File formats (.pdf,.xls,.doc,.ppt, …)

7. Specialty Information  How to find specialty information?  Search via a specialty Web site  May require subscription  Libraries are good resources  ProQuest  EBSCOHost

8. Specialty Information  Scope or focus  Tends to be narrow  Higher quality for specific purpose  May find overlap with multiple sites on the same general subject

9. Specialty Information  Free or pay?  General information may be free  Details you have to pay for  May require registration  Name, address, email, credit card  Often a means to spam you  Current information may be free  Archived information requires subscription/fee  Review privacy policies

10. Specialty Information  Incomplete coverage  Up-to-date information hard to come by  Valuable  May have to pay for it  Access may be restricted by owner  Corporate information  Trade secrets  Inventory database  Employee directories

11. Finding People or Places  Search by  Name  Phone number  Street address  Email address  Not necessarily comprehensive  Individuals may opt out  People move

12. Finding People or Places  Where to go for people?  Yahoo people search Yahoo people search Yahoo people search  WhoWhere WhoWhere  Switchboard Switchboard  WhitePages WhitePages  US Search US Search US Search

13. Finding People or Places  Where to go for maps?  MapQuest MapQuest  Yahoo Maps Yahoo Maps Yahoo Maps  WhereIs WhereIs  EarthCam EarthCam  Google Maps Google Maps Google Maps  Strange map  Dig a Hole Dig a Hole Dig a Hole

14. Finding Businesses  Yellow Pages  Yellow.com Yellow.com  YellowPages.com YellowPages.com  InfoSpace.com InfoSpace.com  AnyWho AnyWho  International  Europages Europages

15. Finding Businesses  Reverse lookups  ReversePhoneDirectory.com ReversePhoneDirectory.com  AnyWho.com AnyWho.com  InfoSpace.com InfoSpace.com

16. Searching Periodicals  Periodical databases include  Popular magazines  Newspapers  Scholarly journals  Some may be online only  Salon.com  May not carry same stories as print version

17. Searching Periodicals  Subscription databases  Proquest  InfoTrac  Searchable  MagPortal.com  FindArticles

18. Government Information  Portals are common  FedWorld.gov FedWorld.gov  FirstGov.gov FirstGov.gov  Government Printing Office Government Printing Office Government Printing Office

19. Online Reference  Lots of kinds  Almanacs  Dictionaries  Encyclopedias  Directories  May be licensed for patron use only  May be able to access from home

20. Online Reference  Resources  FILExt.com – File extensions FILExt.com  Netiquette – Online etiquette Netiquette  Wikipedia.org – Encyclopedia Wikipedia.org  Webopedia.com - Encyclopedia Webopedia.com  m-w.com – Dictionary m-w.com

21. Mailing Lists & Newsgroups  Web is not just information  Communication and Interaction  Mailing lists (listserv)  Automatically email all subscribers  Newsgroups (Usenet)  Virtual bulletin boards  Messages posted  Can read and respond

22. Mailing Lists & Newsgroups  Mailing list resources  LSoft LSoft  coollist coollist  Mailman Mailman  Newsgroup resources  newzbot.com newzbot.com  Usenet Portal Usenet Portal Usenet Portal  Google Groups Google Groups Google Groups

23. Intelligent Agents  As Internet grows, finding the right information becomes harder and harder  New tools evolving: intelligent search agent  Software that automates searches  “Knows” how to query parts of deep Web  Can rank & sort results

24. Intelligent Agents Resources  AgentLand AgentLand  BotSpot BotSpot  123bots 123bots  Popup-busters Popup-busters  Intelligent Agents Intelligent Agents Intelligent Agents